Release date: September 9, 2014

For more information on patch and update classification, see KB 2014447. To search for available patches, see the Patch Manager Download Portal.

Summaries and Symptoms

This patch updates the esx-base, esx-tboot, tools-light, net-tg3, sata-ahci, scsi-megaraid-sas, misc-drivers, sata-ata-piix VIBs to resolve the following issues:

• PR 1037088: The ethtool utility might report an incorrect cable connection type for Emulex 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE) 554FLR-SFP adapter. This is because ethtool might not support Direct Attached Copper (DAC) port type.
  
  
  
• PR 1083575: On an ESXi host, enabled with default I/O scheduler, one or more virtual machines utilize the maximum I/O bandwidth of the device for a long time causing an IOPS imbalance. This occurs due to a race condition identified in the ESXi default I/O scheduler. This patch resolves the issue by ensuring uniformity in IOPS across VMs on an ESXi host.
  
  
  
• PR 1092777: When large CIM requests are sent to the LSI SMI-S provider on an ESXi host, high I/O latency might occur on the ESXi host due to poor storage.
  
  
  
• PR 1114023: After you install an ESXi host and connect it to a vCenter Server, the power supply information in the vCenter Server Hardware Status tab might appear as unknown.
  
  
  
• PR 1115359: When uplink is unstable, the ESXi host might fail with a purple screen and displays an error message similar to the following:
  
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]UplinkRxQueuesLoadBalance@vmkernel#nover+0xnnn stack: 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]UplinkLB_LoadBalanceCB@vmkernel#nover+0x8e stack: 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn, 0x
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]UplinkAsyncProcessCallsHelperCB@vmkernel#nover+0x223 stack: 0x0, 0x4
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]helpFunc@vmkernel#nover+0x6b6 stack: 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]CpuSched_StartWorld@vmkernel#nover+0xfa stack: 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0
  
  If you use Qlogic UCNA driver for your NIC, the status of the Uplink Port on an ESXi 5.5 host flaps and an error is written to vmkernel.log similar to the following:
  
  vmnic3:qlcnic_issue_cmd:372:Failed card response err_code: 0xn
  vmnic3:qlcnic_fw_cmd_destroy_tx_ctx:827:Failed to destroy tx ctx in firmware, err_code : 8
  vmnic3:qlcnic_dev_request_reset:6879:Changed the adapter dev_state to NEED_RESET.
  vmnic3:qlcnic_check_health:7485:Adapter not in operational state(Heartbit Failure), resetting adapter.
  <6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.1:
  vmnic3:qlcnic_check_peg_halt_status:6722:PEG_HALT_STATUS1: 0xnnnnnnnn, PEG_HALT_STATUS2: 0xnnnnnn.
  vmnic3:qlcnic_detach:2337:Deleted Tx and Rx loopback filters.
  vmnic3:qlcnic_disable_bus_master:1042:Disabled bus mastering.
  vmnic3:qlcnic_free_rx_irq:2008:Freed vmnic3_rx[0] irq.
  vmnic3:qlcnic_ctx_free_tx_irq:1859:Freed vmnic3_txq[0] irq #85.
  
  
  
• PR 1129747: An ESXi host might fail when you create more than 16 TB of VMFS5 datastore on a storage device. An error similar to the following is written to vmkernel.log:
  
  WARNING: LVM: 10032: Invalid firstPE 3758096383
  WARNING: LVM: 10039: Invalid lastPE 3758096383
  WARNING: LVM: 5242: Error detected for vol 526f639f-93de6438-940e-d48cb5bc414c, dev naa.60000970000195700908533037393545:1
  2013-11-05T09:50:56.997Z cpu10:34259)LVM: 7133: Device scan failed for : Invalid metadata
  FSS: 5051: No FS driver claimed device 'naa.60000970000195700908533037393545:1': Not supported
  VC: 1958: Device rescan time 24 msec (total number of devices 9)
  VC: 1961: Filesystem probe time 56 msec (devices probed 7 of 9)
  VC: 1963: Refresh open volume time 0 msec
  LVM: 7525: Initialized naa.60000970000195700908533037393545:1, devID 5278bf81-af41c8bd-3c21-d48cb5bc414c
  LVM: 7613: Zero volumeSize specified: using available space (30786340240896).
  LVM: 13082: One or more LVM devices have been discovered.
  LVM: 7689: Error "No space left on device" creating volume 5278bf81-82937d98-3734-d48cb5bc414c on device naa.60000970000195700908533037393545:1.
  
  
  
• PR 1134691: The Intel 40G Converged Network Adapter (CNA) in an ESXi host might display the network link status as down.
  
  
  
• PR 1137276: ESXi host might fail with a purple diagnostic screen after you power on a virtual machine with PCI Passthrough Device Emulex Quad Port LPE12004 and you might see the following error:
  
  cpu20:32852)@BlueScreen: #PF Exception 14 in world 32852:helper1-1 IP 0x41803baf7319 addr 0x410800fd3fa0
  PTEs:0x13f1f1023;0x208569d063;0x0;
  cpu20:32852)Code start: 0x41803ba00000 VMK uptime: 0:02:15:58.810
  cpu20:32852)0x4123c151de50:[0x41803baf7319]BackMap_Lookup@vmkernel#nover+0x35 stack: 0xffffffff00000000
  cpu20:32852)0x4123c151df00:[0x41803ba69483]IOMMUDoReportFault@vmkernel#nover+0x133 stack: 0x500000701
  cpu20:32852)0x4123c151df30:[0x41803ba69667]IOMMUProcessFaults@vmkernel#nover+0x1f stack: 0x0
  cpu20:32852)0x4123c151dfd0:[0x41803ba60f8a]helpFunc@vmkernel#nover+0x6b6 stack: 0x0
  cpu20:32852)0x4123c151dff0:[0x41803bc53242]CpuSched_StartWorld@vmkernel#nover+0xfa stack: 0x0
  cpu20:32852)base fs=0x0 gs=0x418045000000 Kgs=0x0

  You see entries similar to the following in vmkernel.log:

  cpu0:1097177)WARNING: IOMMUIntel: 2436: DMAR Fault IOMMU Unit #1: R/W=W, Device 0000:07:00.1 Faulting addr = 0xfd3fa000 Fault Reason = 0x05 -> PTE not set to allow Write.^[[0m
  cpu0:1097177)WARNING: IOMMUIntel: 2493: IOMMU context entry dump for 0000:07:00.1 Ctx-Hi = 0x302 Ctx-Lo = 0x14ac52001^[[0m

  
  
• PR 1138815: vApp startup time might increase when the number of dvPort groups are connected to vCenter Server.
  
  
• PR 1142362: When you configure multiple vmkernel packets, Service Location Protocol (SLP) might fail to send UDP query network packets. As a result, the firewall drops the response packages.
  
  
• PR 1143702: When you attempt to edit /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/endpoints.conf file in a VI editor, you might notice an error message similar to the following:
  Operation not permitted
  
  
• PR 1148226: The performance chart displays incorrect Throughput Usage values for the following vCenter Server inventory objects:
  Virtual Machine > Virtual Disk
  Host > Disk
  Host > Storage Path
  Host > Storage Adapter
  For more information see KB 2064464 (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2064464).
  
  
• PR 1150472: After you configure traffic filtering rules on a vSphere 5.5 Distributed Switch (VDS), you experience these two issues:
  
  When you connect a virtual machine to a distributed switch port group with traffic filtering rules applied, you see an error in the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client:

  Cannot create DVPort portnumber of VDS switchname on the host hostname
  A general system error occurred.

  When you attempt to modify an existing traffic filtering rule on a port group, you see this error:

  Cannot complete a vSphere Distributed Switch operation for one or more host members.
  vDS operation failed on host hostname, Received SOAP response fault from [ TCP:hostname:443>]: invokeHostTransactionCall
  Received SOAP response fault from [ ]: invokeHostTransactionCall
  A general system error occurred: got (vmodl.fault.SystemError) exception

  The hostd.log file (located at /var/log/ on the target ESXi host) contains entries similar to:

  YYYY-02-07T17:57:21.859Z [FF90D5B0 error 'Default' opID=577f035c-5f user=vpxuser] AdapterServer caught unexpected exception: Not a valid netmask
  

• PR 1162498: During system restart, if the ESXi host is unable to reach Auto Deploy and needs to boot from the local cache, the settings might not persist and the ESXi host might be removed from Active Directory (AD) upon reboot.
  
  
• PR 1165712: When you install or upgrade ESXi hosts, 2.5 GiB core dump partition might not be created on supported 4 GiB and 6 GiB USB drivers.
  
  
• PR 1166105: ESXi host might be disconnected from the vCenter Server when the virtual machine is unregistered and the hostd service fails. ESXi host can connect to the vCenter only after you restart the VPXA service.
  
  
• PR 1166611: ESXCLI commands might stop responding on Cisco UCS Blades server due to heavy storage load. Error messages similar to the following might be written to the hostd.log file:
  
  2013-12-13T16:24:57.402Z [3C5C9B90 verbose 'ThreadPool'] usage : total=20 max=62 workrun=18 iorun=2 workQ=78 ioQ=0 maxrun=31 maxQ=79 cur=I
  2013-12-13T16:24:57.403Z [3C5C9B90 verbose 'ThreadPool'] usage : total=20 max=62 workrun=18 iorun=2 workQ=78 ioQ=0 maxrun=31 maxQ=79 cur=I
  2013-12-13T16:24:57.404Z [3BEBEB90 verbose 'ThreadPool'] usage : total=21 max=62 workrun=18 iorun=3 workQ=78 ioQ=0 maxrun=31 maxQ=79 cur=I
  2013-12-13T16:24:58.003Z [3BEBEB90 verbose 'ThreadPool'] usage : total=21 max=62 workrun=18 iorun=3 workQ=78 ioQ=0 maxrun=31 maxQ=79 cur=I
  2013-12-13T16:24:58.282Z [3C9D4B90 verbose 'ThreadPool'] usage : total=22 max=62 workrun=18 iorun=4 workQ=78 ioQ=0 maxrun=31 maxQ=79 cur=I
  
  
• PR 1166844: ESXi hosts might fail with a purple screen with error messages similar to the following when you perform X-vMotion:
  
  #PF Exception 14 in world 301646:vpxa-worker IP 0x41801c281c03 addr 0x0
  PTEs:0x1aabaa027;0x1c7a86027;0x0;
  2014-01-16T09:36:52.171Z cpu0:301646)Code start: 0x41801b600000 VMK uptime: 1:03:55:02.989
  2014-01-16T09:36:52.180Z cpu0:301646)0x41242939d430:[0x41801c281c03]XVMotion_FreeBlocks@esx#nover+0x1f stack: 0x41801ba34b3d
  2014-01-16T09:36:52.192Z cpu0:301646)0x41242939d4a0:[0x41801c23abc2]SVMAsyncIOReadDone@svmVMware#0+0x1d2 stack: 0x412ed091a740
  2014-01-16T09:36:52.204Z cpu0:301646)0x41242939d4d0:[0x41801b62d29f]AsyncPopCallbackFrameInt@vmkernel#nover+0xe7 stack: 0x412eca9d6ac0
  
  
• PR 1167294: Incorrect results might be reported while performing VDS Web Client health check to monitor health status for VLAN, MTU, and Teaming policies.
  
  
• PR 1168714: In an environment where multiple virtual machines are running on the same ESXi host and using the same NFS datastore, you might experience high virtual disks latency and low virtual disk performance if you set the IOPS limit on one virtual machine. Even if you assign different IOPS limits for different virtual machines, IOPS limit on all virtual machines is set to the lowest value assigned to a virtual machine in the NFS datastore.
  
  
• PR 1170618: ESXi hosts might stop responding when you perform vMotion from ESXi 5.1 to ESXi 5.5. Error messages similar to the following might be written to the hostd.log file on the destination ESXi host:
  
  2013-12-18T15:21:52.455Z [FFBEFB70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/50d2f92b-bc57ec6f-f5c0-001c23d7ba27/migtest3/migtest3.vmx'] Get shared vigor fields message: CPUID register value () is invalid.
  --> CPUID register value () is invalid.
  --> CPUID register value () is invalid.
  --> CPUID register value () is invalid.
  --> CPUID register value () is invalid.
  --> CPUID register value () is invalid.
  --> CPUID register value () is invalid.
  --> CPUID register value () is invalid.
  -->
  2013-12-18T15:21:52.455Z [FFBEFB70 info 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/50d2f92b-bc57ec6f-f5c0-001c23d7ba27/migtest3/migtest3.vmx'] Error encountered while retrieving configuration. Marking configuration as invalid: vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault
  
  
• PR 1171064: When you monitor ESXi using SNMP or management software that relies on SNMP, the management system of SNMP might report incorrect ESXi volume size when it retrieves the volume size for large file systems.
  
  
• PR 1173068: The performance chart displays incorrect Throughput Usage values for the following vCenter Server inventory objects:
  
  • Virtual Machine > Virtual Disk
  • Host > Disk
  • Host > Storage Path
  • Host > Storage Adapter
  For more information see KB 2064464.
  
  
• PR 1194750: The Host Resources MIB (RFC 2790) limits the size of the formatted string to 64. The disk identifier name or any formatted string might be truncated if it exceeds this size limit.
  
  
• PR 1195733: The sfcb server creates one firewall rule for each port to send CIM indication. The destination listens to the indication on this port. The sfcb service fails to open ESXi firewall for CIM indication delivery if more than one destination listen to the indication on different ports. This issue occurs when the sfcb service fails to create more than one rule for multiple ports as it uses a fixed name for the firewall rules and duplicate rule name is not allowed in a single rule set. This issue is resolved in this release by using the port number as the suffix of the rule name so that the rule names for different firewall rules do not conflict with each other.
  
  
  
• PR 1196455: When you perform a compliance check on an ESXi host, an error message similar to the following might be displayed in the vSphere Client:
  
  Found extra CIM-XML Indication Subscription on local system for query u'select * from CIM_AlertIndication' sent to destination u'https://IP:port'
  
  
• PR 1197351: During guest operating system customization, if a virtual machine is migrated because of DRS, the customization process might fail and you might notice an error message similar to the following in the Guestcust.log file:
  
  Unable to set customization status in vmx.
  
  
• PR 1197729: VMware Tools might auto-upgrade and the virtual machines might reboot when you enable upgrading of VMware Tools on power cycle and perform vMotion from an ESXi host with no-tools image profile to another ESXi host with VMware Tools ISO image.
  
  
• PR 1197761: When you set permissions for an Active Directory (AD) user or group on an ESXi host with Host Profile, the permissions might not persist after you reboot the ESXi host with Auto Deploy.
  
  
• PR 1197781: If Assert or Deassert entry is logged into the IPMI System Event Log (SEL) for the Memory Presence Detected line, the Hardware Status tab in the vCenter Server might report memory warnings and memory alert messages.
  
  
• PR 1199489: An XML parsing error might occur when you query CIM instances from Web Server Manager (WSMAN) Client on an ESXi host with special characters in one of its properties.
  
  
• PR 1200214: On a vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) or on a standard vSwitch where the traffic shaping is enabled, burst of data packets sent by applications might drop due to limited queue size.
  
  
• PR 1200381: The average CPU usage values displayed by Power CLI might be greater than the frequency of the processors multiplied by the number of processors. This issue is resolved in this release by setting the maximum limit of the average CPU usage values correctly.
  
  
• PR 1201390: You might be unable to boot ESXi host using the stateless cache image when Auto Deploy fails to boot the host.This issue occurs when you upgrade Auto Deploy from ESXi 5.0 to ESXi 5.x and the same image is used in the new Auto Deploy environment. An error message similar to the following is displayed when the host attempts to boot using the cached image:
  
  file not found. Fatal error : 15 (Not found)
  
  
• PR 1202489: Virtual machine might fail when you create a quiesced snapshot of a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 virtual machine. In the vmware.log file of the affected virtual machine, you see entries similar to the following:
  XXXX-03-08T04:10:09.790Z| vmx| SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete done with snapshot 'test4': 0 XXXX-03-08T04:10:09.790Z| vmx| SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Snapshot 0 failed: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine. (40). XXXX-07-01T15:30:43.244Z| vmx| ToolsBackup: not enough empty nodes (needed 9, found 6)
  
  
• PR 1202936: When you run the Prepare ESX Server wizard in the Trend Micro Deep Security Manager interface, it fails while installing the filter driver on an ESXi 5.5 host.
  
  You see the error:
  The installation transaction failed
  
  The esxupdate.log file (located at /var/log/on the ESXi host) contains entries similar to the following:
  
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: BootBankInstaller.pyc: INFO: /altbootbank/boot.cfg: bootstate changed from 3 to 3
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: An esxupdate error exception was caught:
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: Traceback (most recent call last):
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/usr/sbin/esxupdate", line 216, in main
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: cmd.Run()
  fckLR YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora-1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sys-boot/lib/python2.6/site-packages/vmware/esx5update/Cmdline.py", line 144, in Run
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora-1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sys-boot/lib/python2.6/site-packages/vmware/esximage/Transaction.py", line 245, in InstallVibsFromSources
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora-1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sys-boot/lib/python2.6/site-packages/vmware/esximage/Transaction.py", line 347, in _installVibs
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora-1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sys-boot/lib/python2.6/site-packages/vmware/esximage/Transaction.py", line 390, in _validateAndInstallProfile
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora-1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sys-boot/lib/python2.6/site-packages/vmware/esximage/HostImage.py", line 692, in Stage
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora-1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sys-boot/lib/python2.6/site-packages/vmware/esximage/HostImage.py", line 478, in _download_and_stage
  YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: InstallationError: ('Trend_bootbank_dvfilter-dsa_9.0.0-2636', '[Errno 4] Socket Error: [Errno 1] _ssl.c:1332: error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line')
  
  
• PR 1202958: After you install an ESXi host and SNMP monitoring server monitors the host, error messages similar to the following might be written to the syslog.log file:
  snmpd: fetch_fixed_disk_status: fetch VSI_NODE_storage_scsifw_devices_smart_healthStatus(naa.6090a048e059642f5ac6d489e7faed03) failed Not supported, reporting unknown status
  This issue only occurs on hosts with disks that do not support Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART).
  
• PR 1204085: After you perform Veeam backup, the ESXi hosts might be disconnected from the vCenter Server. This issue occurs when Veaam tries to create a snapshot of the virtual machine. Error messages similar to the following are written to the hostd.log file:
  
  --> Crash Report build=1312873
  --> Signal 11 received, si_code -128, si_errno 0
  --> Bad access at 735F6572
  
  
• PR 1208353: ESXi host might fail with a purple screen when you run custom scripts using the AdvStats parameter to check the disk usage. An error message similar to the following might be written to vmkernel.log file:
  
  VSCSI: 231: Creating advStats for handle 8192, vscsi0:0
  The host reports a backtrace similar to:
  Histogram_XXX
  VSCSIPostIOCompletion
  AsyncPopCallbackFrameInt
  
  
• PR 1210129: Hardware health monitoring might fail to respond and error messages similar to the following might be displayed by CIM providers:
  
  2014-02-25T02:15:34Z sfcb-CIMXML-Processor[233738]: PAM unable to dlopen(/lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so): /lib/security/../../lib/security/pam_passwdqc.so: cannot open shared object file: Too many open files2014-02-25T02:15:34Z sfcb-CIMXML-Processor[233738]: PAM adding faulty module: /lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so2014-02-25T02:15:34Z sfcb-CIMXML-Processor[233738]: PAM unable to dlopen(/lib/security/
  The SFCB service might also stop responding.
  
  
• PR 1214779: Creating and deploying a host profile from an ESXi host in a vCenter Server might take a long time or might fail when the host is configured with multiple storage devices and the host cache is SSD enabled. An error message similar to the following is displayed in the vSphere Client:
  
  Error: vcenter took too long to respond. Error Stack: Call "HostProfileManager.CreateProfile" for object "HostProfileManager" on vCenter Server "your.vcenter.server.fqdn" failed.
  
  
• PR 1216850: Rx processing might not get distributed evenly on the available Rx-Netqueues even in the presence of free queues. There might be under-utilization of physical NIC bandwidth, due to some load patterns where highly loaded filters get packed within a single queue.
  
  
• PR 1217528: If the configured scratch location is not in the root of the datastore (/vmfs/volumes//), a warning message similar to the following might be reported due to incorrect identification of the scratch configuration: No scratch partition has been configured.
  
  
• PR 1219338: An ESXi host stops responding and displays a purple diagnostic screen indicating a page fault exception has occurred.
  You see a backtrace similar to the following:
  
  @BlueScreen: #PF Exception 14 in world 33020:reset-handle IP 0x418007961885 addr 0x14
  PTEs:0xnnnnnnnnn;0xnnnnnnnnn;0xnnnnnnnnn;0x0;
  Code start: 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn VMK uptime: 3:23:09:37.928
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn][email protected]#v2_2_0_0+0xc1 sta
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn][email protected]#v2_2_0_0+0x83 stack: 0x417fc6e6014
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn][email protected]#v2_2_0_0+0x248 st
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn][email protected]#v2_2_0_0+0x247 stack: 0x412383f1ded0
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]DevFSFileResetCommand@vmkernel#nover+0x1b5 stack: 0x412383f1df20
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]VSCSI_FSResetTarget@vmkernel#nover+0x3a stack: 0x0
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]VSCSIResetWorldFunc@vmkernel#nover+0x459 stack: 0x0
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]CpuSched_StartWorld@vmkernel#nover+0xfa stack: 0x0
  
  
• PR 1219692: After a host profile is edited to enable stateless caching to the USB disk on the host, the host profile receives compliance errors when attempting to remidiate. The host is rebooted and caching finishes. After checking compliance, the following compliance error messages are received:
  a. Host state does not match specification:device.mpx.vmhbaXX:C0:T0:L0 parameters needs to be reset
  b. Host state does not match specification:device.mpx.vmhbaXX:C0:T0:L0 Path selection Policy needs
  In the above messages, XX might be any integer greater than or equal to 32, such as 34.
  
  
• PR 1220833: When you configure a host profile to use stateless caching by selecting Enable stateless caching to a USB disk on the host option in the System Image Cache Profile Settings drop-down menu and attempt to apply the host profile, compliance check failure might happen on the hosts. This issue occurs when local SAS devices are ignored causing the compliance failures for local devices.
  
  
• PR 1224625: When you add read-only LUNs to a new datastore to create 200 VMFS replicas, the list of volumes in "Add storage wizard" might be displayed after 30 minutes.
  
  
• PR 1225606: When you stop and start the hardware monitoring service (sfcbd) in a vCenter Server to monitor the hardware status of the host, the sfcbd process might stop with an error similar to the following written to syslog file:
  
  sfcbd: Sending TERM signal to sfcbd
  sfcbd-watchdog: Sleeping for 20 seconds
  sfcbd: Sending TERM signal to sfcbd
  sfcbd-watchdog: Sleeping for 20 seconds
  sfcbd-watchdog: Waited for 3 20 second intervals, SIGKILL next
  sfcbd: Stopping sfcbd
  sfcbd-watchdog: Sleeping for 20 seconds
  sfcbd-watchdog: Providers have terminated, lets kill the sfcbd.
  sfcbd-watchdog: Reached max kill attemtps. watchdog is exiting
  
  
• PR 1229385: On an ESXi host, when you register two different method providers to the same CIM class with different namespaces, upon request, the sfcb always responds with the provider nearest to the top of providerRegister. This might be an incorrect method provider.
  
• 
  PR 1230050: When you attempt to edit a video using VideoReDo application, the video might be displayed multiple times. Also, you might notice distorted images while editing the video.
  
  
• PR 1233143: After you upgrade the ESXi host to ESXi 5.5 Update 1 on a NUMA server, which does not have memory allocated in the first NUMA node, the host might display a purple diagnostic screen with a backtrace similar to the following:
  World: wwww: PRDA 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn ss 0x0 ds 0x10b es 0x10b fs 0x0 gs 0x13b
  World: wwww: TR 0xnnnn GDT 0x4123814a1000 (0x402f) IDT 0x41802c0f3000 (0xfff)
  World: wwww: CR0 0xnnnnnnnn CR3 0x11ca3f000 CR4 0x2768
  Backtrace for current CPU #11, worldID=32850, ebp=0x41238149db50
  0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]MemNode_MPN2ID@vmkernel#nover+0x1a stack: 0x4124aaea7000, 0x4124aaea
  
  
• PR 1236098: The hostd service might not respond when you connect vSphere Client to an ESXi host to view health status and perform a refresh action. You see a log similar to the following written to hostd.log:
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.344Z [5A344B90 verbose \\\'ThreadPool\\\'] usage : total=22 max=74 workrun=22 iorun=0 workQ=0 ioQ=0 maxrun=30 maxQ=125 cur=W
  
  
• PR 1239938: WBEM queries might fail when you attempt to monitor the hardware health of an ESXi host. An error message similar to the following is written to syslog:

  Timeout error accepting SSL connection exiting.

• PR 1241633: When you attempt to upgrade from ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5.5, the nsswitch.conf file of the host might not be migrated properly and as a result you might be unable to add the host to vCenter Server.
  
  
• PR 1255916: The Rescan all storage adapters operation that you run from the vCenter Server or ESXCLI might take a long time to complete if the ESXi host has a large number of VMFS data stores. This release improves performance for various storage operations such as Rescan all storage adapters and VMFS datastores and operations such as Listing VMFS Snapshots and Devices in the Create Datastore wizard.
  
  
• PR 1260478: During guest operating system customization, if a virtual machine is migrated because of DRS, the customization process might fail and you might notice an error message similar to the following in the Guestcust.log file:
  
  Unable to set customization status in vmx
  
  
• PR 1089690: VMware vShield Endpoint Thin Agent is renamed as VMware Tools Guest Introspection plug-in. The vShield Endpoint driver bundled with VMware Tools is now called Guest Introspection.
  
  
• PR 1147656: Snapshot quiescing and hot cloning of a Linux virtual machine might fail and error messages similar to the following might be written to vmware.log file:
  
  2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120: [msg.snapshot.quiesce.vmerr] The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing.
  2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120+ The error code was: 3
  2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120+ The error message was: Error when enabling the sync provider.
  2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120: ----------------------------------------
  2013-12-12T00:09:59.449Z| vcpu-1| I120: ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: STARTED -> ERROR_WAIT
  2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: ERROR_WAIT -> IDLE
  2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: IDLE -> DONE
  2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Done with snapshot 'clone-temp-1386910714682919': 0
  2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Snapshot 0 failed: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine (40).
  
  
  
• PR 1204553: Virtual machines running MOVE Agentless 3.0 on ESXi host might appear to become unresponsive with a black screen during login for 40 seconds or more.
  
  
• PR 1214493: The memory balloon driver(VMMEMCTL)might fail to compile in FreeBSD versions 10.0 and above. An error message similar to the following is written to xxx.log:
  --- vmmemctl ---
  os.c:300:22: error: implicit declaration of function 'kmem_alloc_nofault' is invalid in C99[-Werror,-Wimplicit-function-declaration] vm_offset_t res = kmem_alloc_nofault(kernel_map, PAGE_SIZE)^
  os.c:357:14: error: incompatible pointer types passing 'vm_map_t' (aka 'struct vm_map ') to parameter of type 'struct vmem ' [-Werror,-Wincompatible-pointer- types] kmem_free(kernel_map, (vm_offset_t)mapping, PAGE_SIZE); ^
  @/vm/vm_extern.h:59:29: note: passing argument to parameter here void kmem_free(struct vmem *, vm_offset_t, vm_size_t);^
  
  
• PR 1216736: After installing VMware Tools 5.1 on a Windows virtual machine, the Windows Application Event log of the guest operating system reports warnings similar to the following:
  [ warning] [vmusr:vmusr] vmware::tools::UnityPBRPCServer::Start: Failed to register with the host!
  [ warning] [vmusr:vmtoolsd] Failed registration of app type 2 (Signals) from plugin unity.
  [ warning] [vmusr:vmusr] Error in the RPC receive loop: RpcIn: Unable to send.
  [ warning] [vmusr:vmusr] socket count not create new socket, error 10047: An address incompatible with the requested protocol was used
  [ warning] [vmusr:vmusr] Channel restart failed [1]
  
  
• PR 1221217: The Managed Object Browser (MOB) for GuestInfo.ipAddress data object might not be populated correctly and the value of GuestInfo.ipAddress data object might be displayed as unset when more than four NICs are connected. This issue occurs when VMware Tools fails to determine a valid GOS IP address.
  
  
• PR 1252476: When you attempt to install RHEL virtual machines using the kick start file, the operating system specific packages (OSPs) might display error message similar to the following:
  Could not load modules.dep
  
  
• PR 1275409: Attempts to perform vMotion might cause the virtual machines to fail with a blue screen and error messages similar to the following might be written to vmware.log file after you upgrade VMware Tools:
  ...2014-05-12T00:07:02.052Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: ( 1) `A problem has be
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.066Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: ( 1) `A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.083Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: ( 2) `to your computer.'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.084Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: ( 4) `The HTTP ke'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.100Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: ( 4) `The HTTP kernel driver (http.sys) reached a corrupted state and can not recover.'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.100Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: ( 5) ` This means'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.117Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: ( 6) `that the HTTP module detected that its private data is corrupted. This usually'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.117Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: ( 7) `results in'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.134Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: ( 8) `eventual corruption of the thread pool and an access violation.'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.150Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: (10) `If this is the first time you've seen this Stop err'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.168Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: (10) `If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen,'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.168Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: (11) `restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow'
  2014-05-12T00:07:02.184Z| mks| I120: WinBSOD: (12) `these steps:
  ...
  This issue occurs due to incorrect TCP connection handling in the vShield Endpoint TDI Manager driver, vnetflt.sys.
  
  
• PR 1095969: Upgrading to VMware Tools 5.x causes log spew with the message: Error in the RPC receive loop: RpcIn: Unable to send
  

  This issue occurs when two or more users are logged into Windows Terminal Server or Linux. To fully resolve the issue, you also need to update the esx-base VIB by applying the ESXi550-201409201-UG bulletin and update the tools-light VIB by applying the ESXi550-201409202-UG bulletin.

  
  
• PR 1073491: This patch updates the net-tg3 VIB to update the tg3 driver.
  
  
• PR 1217992: This patch updates the sata-ahci and sata-ata-piix VIBs to update ahci and ata_piix driver.
  
  
• PR 1237298: This patch updates the scsi-megaraid-sas VIB to resolve the issue when you use LSI SMI-S provider with MegaRaid SAS device driver on an ESXi 5.x host, the status change of LSI MegaRaid disk might not be indicated or might be delayed when you run the command enum_instances LSIESG_PhysicalDrive lsi/lsimr13. The following example indicates that the value of PowerState does not change or changes after a delay when the Power Saving mode of LSI MegaRaid disk is modified:

  LSILSIESG_PhysicalDrive.Tag="500605B004F93CF0_252_36",CreationClassName="LSIESG_PhysicalDrive"
  CreationClassName = LSIESG_PhysicalDrive
  Tag = 500605B004F93CF0_252_36
  UserDataBlockSize = 512
  PiType = 0
  PiEligible = 0
  PiFomatted = 0
  PowerState = 0 ---> No change in status
  Vendor = (NULL)
  FRUNumber = (NULL)
  DiskDrive_DeviceID = 252_36
  

• PR 1148735: This patch updates the misc-drivers VIB to the update the latest version of PCI IDs in ESXi server.
  
  
• PR 1139093: vSphere HA protection state might remain as unprotected if the HA cluster incorrectly assumes that the virtual machine is powered off. This issue occurs when vm.runtime.cleanPowerOff property is incorrectly set to true and as a result the HA cluster assumes that the virtual machine is powered off. Error messages similar to the following are written to the log files:

  vpxd-8.log:2013-11-21T20:44:49.902Z [7F69C7CF9700 info 'vmdasVm' opID=FdmWaitForUpdates-domain-c26-45712e7f] [VmMo::UpdateActualDasProtectStateLocked] actual protection state for VM vm-93 'unprotected' -> 'protected'
  vpxd-10.log:2013-11-22T00:03:01.731Z [7F69D4832700 info 'vmdasVm' opID=FdmWaitForUpdates-domain-c26-6b160bef] [VmMo::UpdateActualDasProtectStateLocked] actual protection state for VM vm-93 'protected' -> 'unprotected'

• PR 1145945: If a quiesce snapshot fails during the LWD transfer process, the hostd service might fail and an error message similar to the following might be written to the hostd.log file:
  
  Panic: Assert Failed: "false" @ bora/vim/hostd/hbrsvc/ReplicationGroup.cpp:5123
  
• PR 1143788: Virtual machines might fail to power on when you add PCI devices of Base Address Register (BAR) size less than 4KB as a passthrough device. A message similar to the following is written to the vmware.log file:
  PCIPassthru: Device 029:04.0 barIndex 0 type 2 realaddr 0x97a03000 size 128 flags 0
  PCIPassthru: Device 029:04.0 barIndex 1 type 2 realaddr 0x97a01000 size 1024 flags 0
  PCIPassthru: Device 029:04.0 barIndex 2 type 2 realaddr 0x97a02000 size 128 flags 0
  PCIPassthru: Device 029:04.0 barIndex 3 type 2 realaddr 0x97a00000 size 1024 flags 0
  PCIPassthru: 029:04.0 : barSize: 128 is not pgsize multiple
  PCIPassthru: 029:04.0 : barSize: 1024 is not pgsize multiple
  PCIPassthru: 029:04.0 : barSize: 128 is not pgsize multiple
  PCIPassthru: 029:04.0 : barSize: 1024 is not pgsize multiple
  
  
• PR 1160852: You might be unable to corelate the information in the performance data with the logs. This issue occurs because the logs are collected before the performance data in vm-support bundle.
  
  
• PR 1160570: You are unable to increase the size of disk partition in MAC OS X guest operating system using Disk Utility on an ESXi host. This issue does not occur when you attempt to increase the size using VMware Fusion. This issue is resolved in this release by changing the headers in the GUID partition table (GPT) after increasing the disk size.
  
  
• PR 1244945: When CBT is used with vSAN, in certain cases some components of the vmdk are lost that might lead to virtual macgine operations failure.
  
  
• PR 1253788: The USB device information available in /etc/vmware/usb.ids might display wrong vendor information.
  
  
• PR 1256944: The virtual machine configuration option Force BIOS Setup on vSphere Client might fail with an error message similar to the following:
  The attempted operation cannot be performed in the current state (Powered on)

• PR 1283650: The scripted installation for ESXi 5.5 U2 on Dell server might fail when you use the clearpart command in ks.cofg file. An error message similar to the following is displayed:
  nhandled exception. ('NoneType' object has no attribute 'delete_all')

• PR 1195054: An error message similar to the following might be displayed:
  
  The upgrade is not supported on the host hardware. The upgrade ISO image contains HP (or other vendor) VIBs that failed the host hardware vendor compatibility check. VIBs by HP are not supported on host hardware model Hewlett-Packard Company made by vendor.
  
  
• PR 1140072: When you execute automation code to copy a virtual machine, the ESXi host might disconnect from vCenter Server. This issue occurs when the hostd service fails.
  
• PR 1226131: During VMFS refresh the virtual machines might become unresponsive to ping requests for a prolonged period of time. For more information, see KB 1039088.
  
  
• PR 1229998: When you add a Raw Device Mapping (RDM) virtual disk to a virtual machine, the hostd might fail with a purple diagnostic screen.
  
  
• PR 1231788: vApp deployment might fail on NFS during linked clone operations if Enable VAAI for fast provisioning option is set in VCD. An error message similar to the following is present in hostd.log file:
  
  Create child failed to mark parent read-only (25): The system cannot find the file specified

• PR 1237733: A new claim rule option reset_on_attempted_reserve has been added to ESX 5.5 for IBM storage Array Model 2145.

• PR 1141296: deployPkg.dll file which is present in C:\Program Files\Vmware\Vmware Tools\ is not found after you upgrade VMware Tools. This is observed when it is upgraded from version 5.1 U2 to 5.5 U2 and version 5.5 to 5.5 U2.
  
  
• PR 1159505: After you install VMware Tools, the Windows Event Viewer displays a warning similar to the following:
  Unable to read a line from 'C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\messages\es\hgfsUsability.vmsg': Invalid byte sequence in conversion input.
  
  This issue is particularly noticed when you install VMware Tools on Spanish locale operating system.
  
  
• PR 1174550: You might be unable to automatically upgrade VMware Tools on 64-bit Linux guest operating systems.
  
  Error message similar to the following might be written to /var/log/vmware-tools-upgrader.log file: Executing "/tmp/vmware-root/vmware-tools-upgrader-32 " /tmp/vmware-root/run_upgrader.sh: line 64: /tmp/vmware-root/vmware-tools-upgrader-32: No such file or directory
  
  This issue occurs when the ESXi Shell is a symbolic link by default.

Deployment Considerations

None beyond the required patch bundles and reboot information listed in the table above.

Patch Download and Installation

The typical way to apply patch bulletin to ESXi hosts is through the VMware Update Manager. For details, see the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager.

ESXi hosts can be updated by manually downloading the patch ZIP file from the VMware download page and installing the VIB by using the esxcli software vib command. Additionally, the system can be updated using the image profile and the esxcli software profile command. For details, see the vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples and the vSphere Upgrade Guide.